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155-476: Thomas Peter Lantos (born Tamás Péter Lantos ; February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008) was a Hungarian- American politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1981 until his death in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party , he represented the state's 11th congressional district until 1993. After redistricting, he served from the 12th congressional district , which included both

310-473: A B.A. in 1949 and an M.A. in 1950. He continued his post-graduate education at the University of California, Berkeley , and received a Ph.D. in economics in 1953. After graduation from Berkeley, Lantos became a professor of economics at San Francisco State University . In subsequent years, he worked as a business consultant and television commentator on subjects of foreign policy. He eventually became

465-652: A Jewish family in Budapest , Hungary , the son of Anna, a high school English teacher, and Pál Lantos, a banker. His family was heavily involved in education, and included an uncle who was a professor at the University of Budapest and a grandmother who was a high school principal. His life in Hungary would change after the annexing of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, with the Austrian border just 100 miles (160 km) from Budapest. Lantos remembered this period and

620-741: A civil disobedience action in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C. They were protesting the role of the Sudanese government in carrying out genocide in the Darfur conflict and were arrested for disorderly conduct . Lantos was an activist for the rights of Hungarian minorities; as a member of the US House of Representatives. In a 2007 letter he asked Robert Fico , the Prime Minister of Slovakia to distance themselves from

775-614: A "prizefighter", whose stamina would make him go "any amount of rounds, with anyone, anywhere, to protect human rights and common decency". In 2008, after his death, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded in 1983, was renamed the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission . Its mission is partly "to promote, defend, and advocate internationally recognized human rights". In the final weeks of his life, Lantos asked that

930-805: A 15th term in the House, but planned to complete his final term. In his statement, he said: It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti- Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country." Lantos died from complications of esophageal cancer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on February 11, 2008, ten days after his 80th birthday, and eleven months before

1085-485: A 1979 special election after Democrat Leo Ryan was killed in the Jonestown massacre . Lantos defeated Royer by 5,700 votes. He never again faced such a close contest, and was re-elected 13 times. Lantos earned a reputation as a champion for various human rights causes, such as having Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang testify at a congressional hearing after the company turned over the email records of two Chinese dissidents to

1240-704: A 1984 case, Davis v. Bandemer , the Supreme Court held that gerrymandered districts could be struck down based on the Equal Protection Clause , but the Court did not articulate a standard for when districts are impermissibly gerrymandered. However, the Court overruled Davis in 2004 in Vieth v. Jubelirer , and Court precedent holds gerrymandering to be a political question . According to calculations made by Burt Neuborne using criteria set forth by

1395-488: A 70% higher pension than other federal employees based on the first 20 years of service. They become eligible to receive benefits after five years of service (two and one-half terms in the House). The FERS is composed of three elements: Members of Congress may retire with full benefits at age 62 after five years of service, at age 50 after 20 years of service, and at any age after 25 years of service. With an average age of 58,

1550-574: A FEHBP plan upon retirement. The ACA and the final rule do not affect members' or staffers' eligibility for Medicare benefits. The ACA and the final rule also do not affect members' and staffers' eligibility for other health benefits related to federal employment, so members and staff are eligible to participate in FSAFEDS (which has three options within the program), the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, and

1705-595: A bill to stop the spread of antisemitism . On other aspects of American foreign policy , Lantos spoke out against waste, fraud and abuse in the multi-billion dollar U.S. reconstruction program in Iraq, and warned that the U.S. could lose Afghanistan to the Taliban if the Bush administration failed to take decisive action to halt the current decline in political stability there. Lantos was against U.S. military aid to Egypt as

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1860-485: A blind eye to the suffering of the innocent at the hands of evil men". A memorial service was held for Lantos on February 14, 2008, at Statuary Hall in the Capitol. Speakers included Senator Joe Biden , Bono of U2 , Rep. Steny Hoyer , UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni , Speaker Nancy Pelosi , Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , Rep. Christopher Shays and Elie Wiesel . He

2015-499: A candidate. Therefore, Article I, Section 5, which permits each House to be the judge of the qualifications of its own members does not permit either House to establish additional qualifications. Likewise a State could not establish additional qualifications. William C. C. Claiborne served in the House below the minimum age of 25. Disqualification: under the Fourteenth Amendment , a federal or state officer who takes

2170-512: A congressman, he sometimes referred to himself as one of the few living members of Congress who had fought against fascism . In 1981, Lantos sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States , and became a member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation . In January 2006, he traveled to Hungary and attended a ceremony commemorating the 61st anniversary of the liberation of

2325-481: A darker colour of skin than Nordics had long been rebuked in anthropology through the depigmentation theory that claimed that lighter-skinned peoples had been depigmented from a darker skin, this theory has since become a widely accepted view in anthropology. Anthropologist Carleton S. Coon in his work The Races of Europe (1939) subscribed to depigmentation theory that claimed that the Nordic race's light-coloured skin

2480-526: A debt to ancient Aryan Germans. The Council denounced the Manifesto ' s Nordicist attitude towards Mediterraneans that it claimed was considering them as slaves and was a repudiation of the entire Italian civilization. Since the military defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies in 1945, some neo-Nazis have developed a more inclusive definition of "Aryan", claiming that the peoples of Western Europe are

2635-520: A federal statutory requirement since 1967 pursuant to the act titled An Act For the relief of Doctor Ricardo Vallejo Samala and to provide for congressional redistricting . Before that law, general ticket representation was used by some states. States typically redraw district boundaries after each census, though they may do so at other times, such as the 2003 Texas redistricting . Each state determines its own district boundaries, either through legislation or through non-partisan panels. Malapportionment

2790-515: A fiasco. Is it any wonder that on the subject of Iraq, more and more Americans have little confidence in this Administration? We can not take ANY of this Administration's assertions on Iraq at face value anymore, and no amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility. This is not a knock on you, General Petraeus, or on you, Ambassador Crocker. But the fact remains, gentlemen, that the Administration has sent you here today to convince

2945-532: A four-year term, the resident commissioner's role is identical to the delegates from the other territories. The five delegates and resident commissioner may participate in debates; before 2011, they were also allowed to vote in committees and the Committee of the Whole when their votes would not be decisive. States entitled to more than one representative are divided into single-member districts . This has been

3100-495: A major role in the early work of La Difesa , and published the Manifesto of Racial Scientists in the magazine in 1938. The Manifesto received substantial criticism, including its assertion of Italians being a pure race, as it was viewed as absurd. La Difesa published other theories that described long-term Nordic Aryan amongst Italians, such as the theory that in the Eneolithic age Nordic Aryans arrived to Italy. Many of

3255-592: A member requires only a simple majority, and does not remove that member from office. As a check on the regional, popular, and rapidly changing politics of the House, the Senate has several distinct powers. For example, the " advice and consent " powers (such as the power to approve treaties and confirm members of the Cabinet ) are a sole Senate privilege. The House, however, has the exclusive power to initiate bills for raising revenue, to impeach officials, and to choose

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3410-467: A minor mistake". Boorda, the Chief of Naval Operations , had taken his own life after his right to wear Combat V decorations had been questioned. Lantos was criticized by some (including fellow Congressman Joe Scarborough ) for this comment. On May 3, 2000, Lantos was involved in an automobile accident while driving on Capitol Hill . He drove over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop his vehicle and

3565-556: A more deliberative upper house, elected by the lower house, that would represent the individual states, and would be less susceptible to variations of mass sentiment. The House is commonly referred to as the lower house and the Senate the upper house , although the United States Constitution does not use that terminology. Both houses' approval is necessary for the passage of legislation . The Virginia Plan drew

3720-574: A newspaper headline he read when he was ten years old, " Hitler Marches into Austria". Even at a young age, he understood the significance of this invasion, recalling in a 1999 interview with University of Washington Magazine , "I sensed that this historic moment would have a tremendous impact on the lives of Hungarian Jews , my family, and myself". Six years later, in March 1944, the German military invaded Hungary and occupied Budapest, its capital. As he

3875-594: A non-profit be established to carry on the work he felt so passionately about. The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice was founded later that year to carry out that wish. In 2011, the Tom Lantos Institute was set up in Budapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues in Central Europe and Eastern Europe , as well as around the world. Lantos was born Tamás Péter Lantos ( Hungarian: [ˈtɒmaːʃ ˈpeːtɛr ˈlɒntoʃ] ) into

4030-505: A pamphlet which declared Magyars (which it did not define) as Aryans. The following year, an article published by the Nazis admitted that there were disputes over the racial status of Hungarians. As late as 1943, there were disputes over whether Hungarians were to be classified as Aryan. In 1942, Hitler declared that the Finns were racially related Germanic neighboring peoples, although there

4185-543: A result, the process to gain ballot access varies greatly from state to state, and in the case of a third party in the United States may be affected by results of previous years' elections. In 1967, Congress passed the Uniform Congressional District Act , which requires all representatives to be elected from single-member-districts. Following the Wesberry v. Sanders decision, Congress

4340-862: A searching inquiry by the House Ethics Committee." On October 4, 2002, Lantos led a narrow majority of Democrats on the House International Relations Committee to a successful vote in support of the Resolution for the Use of Force, seeking the approval of the United Nations and under the condition that President George W. Bush would allow UN weapons inspectors to finish their work and that Bush would need to return to Congress for an actual declaration of war before invading Iraq. The resolution later passed

4495-615: A senior advisor to various U.S. Senators, and in 1980, he was elected to the U.S. Congress , where he remained until his death in February 2008. Recalling his early life, he announced his retirement by stating to Congress, "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country." Despite becoming fluent in English, Lantos never lost his Hungarian accent. During his childhood, he met his future wife, Annette Tillemann (or Tilleman; born June 27, 1931), then using

4650-438: A single MRA that can fund any expense—even though each component is calculated individually, the franking allowance can be used to pay for personnel expenses if the member so chooses. In 2011 this allowance averaged $ 1.4 million per member, and ranged from $ 1.35 to $ 1.67 million. The Personnel allowance was $ 944,671 per member in 2010. Each member may employ no more than 18 permanent employees. Members' employees' salary

4805-618: A superior synthesis of Aryan Italians. Cogni addressed the issue of racial differences between northern and southern Italians, declaring southern Italians were mixed between Aryan and non-Aryan races, that he claimed was most likely due to infiltration by Asiatic peoples in Roman times and later Arab invasions. As such, Cogni viewed Southern Italian Mediterraneans as being polluted with orientalizing tendencies. He would later change his idea and claim that Nordics and Southern Italians were closely related groups both racially and spiritually. His opinion

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4960-468: A two-year term, with no term limit. In most states, major party candidates for each district are nominated in partisan primary elections , typically held in spring to late summer. In some states, the Republican and Democratic parties choose their candidates for each district in their political conventions in spring or early summer, which often use unanimous voice votes to reflect either confidence in

5115-486: A vigorous and dynamic program of space exploration , followed by the creation by genetic engineering of a super race called Homo Galactica . The concept of the "Western Imperium" as outlined in the previous three sentences is based on the original concept of the Imperium as outlined in the 1947 book Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics by Francis Parker Yockey as further updated, extended and refined in

5270-741: A voice in committees, and can introduce bills on the floor, but cannot vote on the ultimate passage of bills. Presently, the District of Columbia and the five inhabited U.S. territories each elect a delegate. A seventh delegate, representing the Cherokee Nation , has been formally proposed but has not yet been seated. An eighth delegate, representing the Choctaw Nation is guaranteed by treaty but has not yet been proposed. Additionally, some territories may choose to also elect shadow representatives , though these are not official members of

5425-729: A wide range of human rights issues. They included speaking for Christians in Saudi Arabia and Sudan to practice their faith, helping Tibetans to retain their culture and religion in Tibet, and advocating for other minorities worldwide. Among his other efforts was a demand that Japan apologize for sex slavery during World War II. He declared Turkey's mass killings of Armenians during World War I to be genocide . In more recent times, he supported democracy in Burma and pressed for sanctions on Iran for supporting terrorism. In 2004, he sponsored

5580-440: Is calculated based on three components: one for personnel, one for official office expenses and one for official or franked mail. The personnel allowance is the same for all members; the office and mail allowances vary based on the members' district's distance from Washington, D.C., the cost of office space in the member's district, and the number of non-business addresses in their district. These three components are used to calculate

5735-820: Is capped at $ 168,411 as of 2009. Aryanism By the late 19th century, a number of later writers, such as the French anthropologist Vacher de Lapouge in his book L'Aryen , argued that this superior branch could be identified biologically by using the cephalic index (a measure of head shape) and other indicators. He argued that the long-headed " dolichocephalic -blond" Europeans, characteristically found in Northern Europe , were natural leaders, destined to rule over more " brachycephalic " (short-headed) peoples. Similar theories were promoted by Nordicists like Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain . Final solution Parties The ideology of Nazism

5890-530: Is charged with the passage of federal legislation , known as bills ; those that are also passed by the Senate are sent to the president for signature or veto . The House's exclusive powers include initiating all revenue bills, impeaching federal officers, and electing the president if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College . Members of the House serve a fixed term of two years, with each seat up for election before

6045-688: Is no charge for outpatient care if it is provided in the National Capital Region , but members are billed at full reimbursement rates (set by the Department of Defense) for inpatient care. (Outside the National Capital Region, charges are at full reimbursement rates for both inpatient and outpatient care). House members are eligible for a Member's Representational Allowance (MRA) to support them in their official and representational duties to their district. The MRA

6200-740: Is no evidence to suggest that this was based on anything racial. The idea of the Northern origins of the Aryans was particularly influential in Germany . It was widely believed that the Vedic Aryans were ethnically identical to the Goths , Vandals and other ancient Germanic peoples of the Völkerwanderung . This idea was often intertwined with antisemitic ideas. The distinctions between

6355-468: Is no legislation at the federal level mandating one particular system for elections to the House, systems are set at the state level. As of 2022, first-past-the-post or plurality voting is used in 46 states, electing 412 representatives, ranked-choice or instant-runoff voting in two states (Alaska and Maine), electing 3 representatives, and two-round system in two states (Georgia and Louisiana), electing 20 representatives. Elected representatives serve

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6510-543: Is occasionally abbreviated as either "MOC" or "MC" (similar to MP ). However, the abbreviation "Rep." for Representative is more common, as it avoids confusion as to whether they are a member of the House or the Senate . All members of Congress are automatically enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System , a pension system also used for federal civil servants , except the formula for calculating Congress members' pension results in

6665-459: Is partly "to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights." The first Lantos Human Rights Prize was presented to the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009. In 2011, the institute was set up in Budapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues in central and eastern Europe and in the world. In the final weeks of his life, Lantos asked that a non-profit be established to carry on

6820-545: Is referred to as the "upper" house, and the House of Representatives as the "lower" house. Since December 2014, the annual salary of each representative is $ 174,000, the same as it is for each member of the Senate . The speaker of the House and the majority and minority leaders earn more: $ 223,500 for the speaker and $ 193,400 for their party leaders (the same as Senate leaders). A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes not to accept it. Congress sets members' salaries; however,

6975-504: Is to have one party govern and the other party watch." The leadership structure of the House also developed during approximately the same period, with the positions of majority leader and minority leader being created in 1899. While the minority leader was the head of the minority party, the majority leader remained subordinate to the speaker. The speakership reached its zenith during the term of Republican Joseph Gurney Cannon , from 1903 to 1911. The speaker's powers included chairmanship of

7130-579: Is unconstitutional and districts must be approximately equal in population (see Wesberry v. Sanders ). Additionally, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits redistricting plans that are intended to, or have the effect of, discriminating against racial or language minority voters. Aside from malapportionment and discrimination against racial or language minorities, federal courts have allowed state legislatures to engage in gerrymandering to benefit political parties or incumbents. In

7285-414: Is unique in that it holds an all-party primary election on the general Election Day with a subsequent runoff election between the top two finishers (regardless of party) if no candidate received a majority in the primary. The states of Washington and California use a similar (though not identical) system to that used by Louisiana. Seats vacated during a term are filled through special elections , unless

7440-565: The American Political Science Association , only about 40 seats, less than 10% of the House membership, are chosen through a genuinely contested electoral process, given partisan gerrymandering. Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for representatives. Each representative must: (1) be at least twenty-five (25) years old; (2) have been a citizen of the United States for

7595-694: The Apportionment Act of 1911 . The Reapportionment Act of 1929 capped the size of the House at 435. However, the number was temporarily increased from 1959 until 1963 to 437 following the admissions of Alaska and Hawaii to the Union. In addition, five non-voting delegates represent the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam , the U.S. Virgin Islands , the Commonwealth of

7750-688: The Beneš decrees , a reasonable process in the Hedvig Malina case, and to treat members of the Hungarian minority as equal. The American Hungarian Federation recognized Congressman Lantos for his "Leadership in Support of Democracy, Human Rights and Minority Rights in Central and Eastern Europe", awarding him the organization's highest award, the "Col. Commandant Michael Kovats Medal of Freedom", at

7905-680: The Budapest Ghetto . The event was held at the Great Synagogue in Budapest. In 1946, Lantos enrolled at the University of Budapest . As a result of his fluent English, he wrote an essay about Franklin D. Roosevelt , and he was awarded a scholarship by the Hillel Foundation to study in the United States. He then emigrated to the U.S., and studied economics at the University of Washington in Seattle , where he earned

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8060-594: The Caucasus in the fifth and fourth millennia BC, and that it had expanded into Asia Minor and Mesopotamia and eventually to the west coast of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Aside from ascribing Armenians and Jews as having Near Eastern characteristics, he ascribed them to several other contemporary peoples; he included some Greeks , Turks , Syrians , and Iranians as having these characteristics as well. In his work Racial Characteristics of

8215-566: The Cro-Magnons . Rellini claimed that Mediterranean and Nordic peoples arrived later and peacefully intermixed in small numbers with the indigenous Italian population. In 1941 the PNF's Mediterraneanists through the influence of Giacomo Acerbo put forward a comprehensive definition of the Italian race. However these efforts were challenged by Mussolini's endorsement of Nordicist figures with

8370-475: The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), an employer-sponsored health insurance program, and were eligible to participate in other programs, such as the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS). However, Section 1312(d)(3)(D) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided that the only health plans that the federal government can make available to members of Congress and certain congressional staff are those created under

8525-491: The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait , including the killing of Kuwaiti babies by taking them out of their incubators and leaving them to die on the floor of the hospital. These alleged atrocities figured prominently in the rhetoric at the time about Iraqi abuses in Kuwait. Her witness account was later challenged by independent human rights monitors. "Nurse Nayirah" later turned out to be the daughter of Kuwaiti politician Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah , who serve as Kuwait's ambassador to

8680-405: The Nazi use of the term Aryan race to refer to what they saw as being a superior race , which was narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race , followed by other sub-races of the Aryan race and excluding Slavs as non-Aryan. They worked to maintain the purity of this race through eugenics programs (including anti-miscegenation legislation, compulsory sterilization of

8835-431: The Polisario Front , which demands independence for the disputed region. In 2007, he backed Morocco's proposal to make the region autonomous under Moroccan rule, saying: "I urge the leadership of the Polisario to realize that they will never again get such a good deal for the population they purport to represent." On January 2, 2008, after having been diagnosed with esophageal cancer , Lantos announced he would not run for

8990-494: The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a change in salary (but not COLA ) from taking effect until after the next election of the whole House. Representatives are eligible for retirement benefits after serving for five years. Outside pay is limited to 15% of congressional pay, and certain types of income involving a fiduciary responsibility or personal endorsement are prohibited. Salaries are not for life, only during active term. Representatives use

9145-452: The United States census , with each district having at least a single representative, provided that that state is entitled to them. Since its inception in 1789, all representatives have been directly elected. Although suffrage was initially limited, it gradually widened, particularly after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment and the civil rights movement . Since 1913, the number of voting representatives has been at 435 pursuant to

9300-552: The president if a presidential candidate fails to get a majority of the Electoral College votes. Both House and Senate confirmation is now required to fill a vacancy if the vice presidency is vacant, according to the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment . The Senate and House are further differentiated by term lengths and the number of districts represented: the Senate has longer terms of six years, fewer members (currently one hundred, two for each state), and (in all but seven delegations) larger constituencies per member. The Senate

9455-556: The size of the House states: "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative." Congress regularly increased the size of the House to account for population growth until it fixed the number of voting House members at 435 in 1911. In 1959, upon the admission of Alaska and Hawaii , the number was temporarily increased to 437 (seating one representative from each of those states without changing existing apportionment), and returned to 435 four years later, after

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9610-545: The ACA or offered through a health care exchange . The Office of Personnel Management promulgated a final rule to comply with Section 1312(d)(3)(D). Under the rule, effective January 1, 2014, members and designated staff are no longer able to purchase FEHBP plans as active employees. However, if members enroll in a health plan offered through a Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) exchange, they remain eligible for an employer contribution toward coverage, and members and designated staff eligible for retirement may enroll in

9765-411: The Administration learn nothing from our country's actions in Afghanistan two decades ago, when by supporting Islamist militants against the Soviet Union , we helped pave the way for the rise of the Taliban ? Why are we now repeating the short-sighted patterns of the past? As co-founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1983 and as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee , Lantos would "stir

9920-597: The Aryan and Semitic peoples were based on the aforementioned linguistic and ethnic history. A complete, highly speculative theory of Aryan and anti-Semitic history can be found in Alfred Rosenberg 's major work, The Myth of the Twentieth Century . Semitic peoples came to be seen as a foreign presence within Aryan societies, and the Semitic peoples were often pointed to as the cause of conversion and destruction of social order and values leading to culture and civilization's downfall by proto-Nazi theorists such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain . These and other ideas evolved into

10075-707: The Aryan race that idealized pure Aryans as having certain physical traits that were defined as Nordic such as blond hair and blue eyes. The antipathy by Mussolini and other Italian Fascists to Nordicism was over the existence of what they viewed as the Mediterranean inferiority complex that they claimed had been instilled into Mediterraneans by the propagation of such theories by German and Anglo-Saxon Nordicists who viewed Mediterranean peoples as racially degenerate and thus in their view inferior. Mussolini refused to allow Italy to return again to this inferiority complex, initially rejecting Nordicism. However traditional Nordicist claims of Mediterraneans being degenerate due to having

10230-450: The Black Forest region of Baden . Adolf Hitler read Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes, which influenced his racial policy and resulted in Günther's Nazi-backed attainment of a position in the anthropology department at the University of Jena in 1932 where Hitler attended Günther's inaugural lecture. Günther distinguished Aryans from Jews, and identified Jews as descending from non-European races, particularly from what he classified as

10385-482: The Chinese government, allowing them to be traced and one sentenced to jail. Lantos was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus , and repeatedly called for reforms to the nation's health-care system , reduction of the national budget deficit and the national debt , repeal of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 . He opposed Social Security privatization efforts. He supported same-sex marriage rights and marijuana for medical use ,

10540-433: The Confederation Congress's sanction to "amend the Articles of Confederation". All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates. Congress's structure was a contentious issue among the founders during the convention. Edmund Randolph 's Virginia Plan called for a bicameral Congress: the lower house would be "of the people", elected directly by the people of the United States and representing public opinion , and

10695-426: The Contract did not pass Congress, were vetoed by President Bill Clinton , or were substantially altered in negotiations with Clinton. However, after Republicans held control in the 1996 election , Clinton and the Gingrich-led House agreed on the first balanced federal budget in decades, along with a substantial tax cut. The Republicans held on to the House until 2006 , when the Democrats won control and Nancy Pelosi

10850-443: The Council denounced the Manifesto for implicitly crediting Germanic invaders of Italy in the guise of the Lombards for having a formative influence on the Italian race in a disproportional degree to the number of invaders and to their biological predominance. The Council claimed that the obvious superiority of the ancient Greeks and Romans in comparison with the ancient Germanic tribes made it inconceivable that Italian culture owed

11005-526: The Egyptian military had failed to stop the flow of money and weapons across the Egyptian border to Hamas in Gaza , and Egypt had not contributed troops to the peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Lantos was a strong supporter of the 1991 Persian Gulf War . During the run-up to the war in 1990, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, of which Lantos was co-chairman, hosted a 15 year old Kuwaiti girl, then identified only as " Nurse Nayirah ", who told of horrific abuses by Iraqi soldiers following

11160-559: The European race as having five subtype races: Nordic , Mediterranean , Dinaric , Alpine , and East Baltic . Günther applied a Nordicist conception that Nordics were the highest in the racial hierarchy amongst these five European subtype races. In his book Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (1922) (Racial Science of the German People), Günther recognized Germans as being composed of all five European subtypes, but emphasized

11315-569: The Fascist government officially recognized Italians as having Nordic heritage and being of Nordic-Mediterranean descent. In a meeting with PNF members in June 1938, Mussolini identified himself as Nordic and declared that previous policy of focus on Mediterraneanism was to be replaced by a focus on Aryanism. The Fascist regime began publication of the racialist magazine La Difesa della Razza in 1938. The Nordicist racial theorist Guido Landra took

11470-700: The Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program. The Office of the Attending Physician at the U.S. Capitol provides members with health care for an annual fee. The attending physician provides routine exams, consultations, and certain diagnostics, and may write prescriptions (although the office does not dispense them). The office does not provide vision or dental care. Members (but not their dependents, and not former members) may also receive medical and emergency dental care at military treatment facilities. There

11625-689: The Geneva Conventions in World War II with regard to Slavs. Hitler called Slavs a rabbit family meaning they were intrinsically idle and disorganized. Nazi Germany 's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels had media speak of Slavs as primitive animals who were from the Siberian tundra who were like a dark wave of filth. The Nazi notion of Slavs being inferior non-Aryans was part of the agenda for creating Lebensraum (living space) for Germans and other Germanic people in eastern Europe that

11780-524: The Germans, along with 440,000 other Hungarian Jews , during the preceding 10 months of their occupation. Wallenberg, for his part, was later credited with saving the lives of thousands of other Hungarian Jews. Lantos described some of his experiences in the Academy Award -winning documentary film The Last Days (1998), produced by Steven Spielberg 's Shoah Foundation . In his floor speeches as

11935-462: The House and are separate individuals from their official delegates. Representatives and delegates serve for two-year terms, while a resident commissioner (a kind of delegate) serves for four years. A term starts on January 3 following the election in November. The U.S. Constitution requires that vacancies in the House be filled with a special election. The term of the replacement member expires on

12090-478: The House and the Senate with a total of 373 of 435 members of Congress supporting it. "The train is now on its way", said Lantos after the resolution successfully passed both houses of Congress. In later hearings on the war, Lantos continued his enthusiastic support. Starting in early 2006, Lantos distanced himself from the Bush Administration 's Iraq policy, making critical statements at hearings, on

12245-520: The House floor and in published media interviews about the conduct of the war. During hearings of the House International Relations Committee, where he was then the ranking member, Lantos repeatedly praised the investigative work of the office of the Special Inspector of Iraq Reconstruction General Stuart Bowen , which uncovered evidence of waste, fraud and abuse in the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars intended to help secure and rebuild Iraq. Lantos

12400-409: The House would have women-only spaces following the election of Sarah McBride . Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution , seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states by population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years. Each state is entitled to at least one representative, however small its population. The only constitutional rule relating to

12555-580: The Jewish People , he defined the racial soul of the Near Eastern race as emphasizing a commercial spirit ( Handelgeist ), and described them as artful traders – a term that Günther ascribed as being used by Jewish racial theorist Samuel Weissenberg to describe contemporary Armenians, Greeks, and Jews. Günther added to that description of the Near Eastern type as being composed primarily of commercially spirited and artful traders, by claiming that

12710-750: The Nazis came to power in 1933 they passed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service law which required all civil servants to provide proof of their Aryan ancestry and defined non-Aryan as a person with one Jewish grandparent. In 1933, the German Interior Ministry official Albert Gorter drafted an official definition of the Aryan race for the new law which included all non-Jewish Europeans, this definition

12865-569: The Nazis declared Slavs to be Untermenschen (subhumans). Exceptions were made for a small percentage of Slavs who were seen by the Nazis to be descended from German settlers and therefore fit to be Germanised to be considered part of the Aryan folk or nation. Hitler described Slavs as a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master. Hitler declared that the Geneva Conventions were not applicable to Slavs because they were subhumans, and German soldiers were thus permitted to ignore

13020-408: The Nazis were physical signs of " Aryanism ", enabled him to serve as a courier and deliver food and medicine to Jews living in other safe houses. In January 1945, less than a year later, Soviet military forces fought door-to-door battles and liberated Hungary from German occupation. However, Lantos, then 17, returned home only to discover that his mother and other family members had all been murdered by

13175-554: The Nazis' emphasizing of a common Nordic Germanic race was absurd, saying, "A Germanic race does not exist. We repeat. Does not exist. Scientists say so. Hitler says so." The fact that Germans were not purely Nordic was indeed acknowledged by prominent Nazi racial theorist Hans F. K. Günther in his book Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (1922) (Racial Science of the German People), where Günther recognized Germans as being composed of five Aryan subtype races: Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric , Alpine , and East Baltic while asserting that

13330-573: The Near Asian race ( Vorderasiatische Rasse ), more commonly known as the Armenoid race , and said that such origins rendered Jews fundamentally different from and incompatible with Germans and most Europeans. This association of Jews with the Armenoid type had been utilized by Zionist Jews who claimed that Jews were a group within that type. He claimed that the Near Eastern race descended from

13485-513: The Nordics were the highest in a racial hierarchy of the five subtypes. By 1936, the tensions between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany reduced and relations became more amicable. In 1936, Mussolini decided to launch a racial programme in Italy, and was interested in the racial studies being conducted by Giulio Cogni . Cogni was a Nordicist but did not equate Nordic identity with Germanic identity as

13640-541: The Northern Mariana Islands , and American Samoa . A non-voting Resident Commissioner, serving a four-year term, represents the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico . As of the 2020 census , the largest delegation was California , with 52 representatives. Six states have only one representative apiece : Alaska , Delaware , North Dakota , South Dakota , Vermont , and Wyoming . The House meets in

13795-777: The October 19, 2005, Congressional Reception commemorating the 49th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. On August 27, 2006, at the Israeli Foreign Ministry building in Israel , Lantos said he would block a foreign aid package promised by President George W. Bush to Lebanon unless and until Beirut agreed to the deployment of international troops on the border with Syria and Lebanon takes control of its borders with Syria to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah guerrillas. Lantos supported Morocco 's demand to gain sovereignty over Western Sahara , and criticized

13950-529: The PNF. By 1939, the Mediterraneanists' advocacy of a nativist racial theory that rejected ascribing the achievements of the Italian people to Nordic peoples. This nativist racial policy was prominently promoted by Ugo Rellini . Rellini rejected the notion of large-scale invasions of Italy by Nordic Aryans in the Eneolithic age, and claimed that Italians were an indigenous people descended from

14105-477: The Racial Scientists . The Council recognized Aryans as being a linguistic-based group, and condemned the Manifesto for denying the influence of pre-Aryan civilization on modern Italy, saying that the Manifesto constitutes an unjustifiable and undemonstrable negation of the anthropological, ethnological, and archaeological discoveries that have occurred and are occurring in our country. Furthermore,

14260-601: The Senate did not hold the balance of power between North and South during the war. The years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party , which many Americans associated with the Union's victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877; the ensuing era, known as the Gilded Age , was marked by sharp political divisions in

14415-467: The US House of Representatives is older than comparable chambers in Russia and the other G7 nations. Members of Congress are permitted to deduct up to $ 3,000 of living expenses per year incurred while living away from their district or home state. Before 2014, members of Congress and their staff had access to essentially the same health benefits as federal civil servants; they could voluntarily enroll in

14570-492: The United States at the time. Asked about having allowed the girl to give testimony without identifying herself, and without her story having been corroborated, Lantos replied, "The notion that any of the witnesses brought to the caucus through the Kuwaiti Embassy would not be credible did not cross my mind... I have no basis for assuming that her story is not true, but the point goes beyond that. If one hypothesizes that

14725-485: The United States Congress; he survived the genocide with help from Raoul Wallenberg . In speaking before the House of Representatives after his death, Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that Lantos "devoted his public life to shining a bright light on the dark corners of oppression. He used his powerful voice to stir the consciousness of world leaders and the public alike." U2 lead singer Bono called him

14880-542: The ability of a small number of senior members to obstruct legislation they did not favor. There was also a shift from the 1990s to greater control of the legislative program by the majority party; the power of party leaders (especially the speaker) grew considerably. According to historian Julian E. Zelizer , the majority Democrats minimized the number of staff positions available to the minority Republicans, kept them out of decision-making, and gerrymandered their home districts. Republican Newt Gingrich argued American democracy

15035-516: The appointment of staunch spiritual Nordicist Alberto Luchini as head of Italy's Racial Office in May 1941, as well as with Mussolini becoming interested in Julius Evola 's spiritual Nordicism in late 1941. Acerbo and the Mediterraneanists in his High Council on Demography and Race sought to bring the regime back to supporting Mediterraneanism by thoroughly denouncing the pro-Nordicist Manifesto of

15190-610: The cause of human freedom. For a lifetime of leadership, for his commitment to liberty, and for his devoted service to his adopted nation, I am proud to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously, to Tom Lantos, and proud that his loving wife Annette will receive the award on behalf of his family." In 2008, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus , which he founded in 1983, was renamed The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Its mission

15345-465: The closest descendants of the ancient Aryans, with Nordic and Germanic peoples being the most "racially pure." According to Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , many neo-Nazis want to establish an autocratic state modeled after Nazi Germany to be called the Western Imperium . It is believed that this proposed state would be able to attain world domination by combining the nuclear arsenals of

15500-650: The consciousness of world leaders and the public alike", according to Representative Nancy Pelosi . She added: "Wherever there was injustice or oppression, he used his expertise and moral authority to put the United States on the side of justice and human rights". In 2007, in his effort to help the people of China and Tibet, he presented the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal . On April 28, 2006, Lantos and four other Democratic U.S. Representatives, along with six other activists, took part in

15655-524: The date that the original member's would have expired. The Constitution permits the House to expel a member with a two-thirds vote. In the history of the United States, only six members have been expelled from the House; in 1861, three were removed for supporting the Confederate states' secession: Democrats John Bullock Clark of Missouri, John William Reid of Missouri, and Henry Cornelius Burnett of Kentucky. Democrat Michael Myers of Pennsylvania

15810-541: The descendants of the Germanic Goths . However the Nazi regime continued to classify Croats as a subhuman in spite of the alliance. Nazi Germany's policy changed towards Slavs in response to military manpower shortages, in which it accepted Slavs to serve in its armed forces within occupied territories, in spite of them being considered subhuman, as a pragmatic means to resolve such manpower shortages. Shortly after

15965-456: The doctor who provided Amnesty International with the number of babies killed dropped from 312 to 72 and then 30, 19 of which died before the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. After the war, The New York Times wrote, "It's plainly wrong for a member of congress to collaborate with a public relations firm to produce knowingly deceptive testimony on an important issue. Yet Representative Tom Lantos has been caught doing exactly that. His behavior warrants

16120-432: The electorate. The Democratic Party and Republican Party each held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw a dramatic increase in the power of the speaker of the House . The rise of the speaker's influence began in the 1890s, during the tenure of Republican Thomas Brackett Reed . "Czar Reed", as he was nicknamed, attempted to put into effect his view that "The best system

16275-422: The end of his term. Numerous politicians memorialized him; House Minority Whip Roy Blunt called him "a man of uncommon integrity and sincere moral conviction — and a public servant who never wavered in his pursuit of a better, freer and more religiously tolerant world", and President George W. Bush called Lantos "a man of character and a champion of human rights" and "a living reminder that we must never turn

16430-484: The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Pursuant to the Uniform Congressional District Act , representatives must be elected from single-member districts . After a census is taken (in a year ending in 0), the year ending in 2 is the first year in which elections for U.S. House districts are based on that census (with the Congress based on those districts starting its term on the following January 3). As there

16585-586: The four major Aryan world powers , the United States , the United Kingdom , France , and Russia under a single military command. This proposed state would be led by a Führer -like figure called the Vindex , and would include all areas inhabited by the "Aryan race", as conceived by Neo-Nazis. Only those of the Aryan race would be full citizens of the state. The "Western Imperium" would embark on

16740-539: The incumbent or the result of bargaining in earlier private discussions. Exceptions can result in so-called floor fights—convention votes by delegates, with outcomes that can be hard to predict. Especially if a convention is closely divided, a losing candidate may contend further by meeting the conditions for a primary election. The courts generally do not consider ballot access rules for independent and third party candidates to be additional qualifications for holding office and no federal statutes regulate ballot access. As

16895-439: The influential Rules Committee and the ability to appoint members of other House committees. However, these powers were curtailed in the "Revolution of 1910" because of the efforts of Democrats and dissatisfied Republicans who opposed Cannon's heavy-handed tactics. The Democratic Party dominated the House of Representatives during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), often winning over two-thirds of

17050-573: The land gained during the Mexican–American War . Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War (1861–1865), which began soon after several southern states attempted to secede from the Union. The war culminated in the South's defeat and in the abolition of slavery. All southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, and therefore

17205-503: The members of these two Committees and the Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect to you, I must say ... I don't buy it. At the same hearing, Lantos drew comparisons between some of the current U.S. activities in Iraq to U.S. support two decades earlier of Islamic militants in Afghanistan: America should not be in the business of arming, training and funding both sides of a religious civil war in Iraq. Did

17360-752: The mentally ill and the mentally deficient, the execution of the institutionalized mentally ill as part of a euthanasia program ). Heinrich Himmler (the Reichsführer of the SS ), the person ordered by Adolf Hitler to implement the Final Solution , or the Holocaust , told his personal masseur Felix Kersten that he always carried with him a copy of the ancient Aryan scripture, the Bhagavad Gita because it relieved him of guilt about what he

17515-734: The most voting members. Under the Articles of Confederation , the Congress of the Confederation was a unicameral body with equal representation for each state, any of which could veto most actions. After eight years of a more limited confederal government under the Articles, numerous political leaders such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton initiated the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which received

17670-474: The name Agnes Ethel Seymour. Her family had managed to escape to Switzerland, using Swedish passports issued by Raoul Wallenberg . After Hungary was liberated, she and her family returned to Budapest, where she and Lantos met again. After emigrating to the United States, they married on July 13, 1950. They remained married until his death in 2008. Agnes Ethel Lantos became a naturalized United States citizen on May 17, 1954, under that name. Annette's father Sebastian

17825-500: The northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a portion of the southwestern part of San Francisco . Lantos, who served as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in his last term, announced in early January 2008 that he would not run for re-election because of cancer of the esophagus . He died before finishing his term. A Hungarian Jew , Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to have served in

17980-525: The other (the Senate) would provide equal representation amongst the states. The Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states (nine out of the 13) in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4, 1789. The House began work on April 1, 1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time. During the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery . The North

18135-427: The past seven years; and (3) be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they represent. Members are not required to live in the districts they represent, but they traditionally do. The age and citizenship qualifications for representatives are less than those for senators . The constitutional requirements of Article I, Section 2 for election to Congress are the maximum requirements that can be imposed on

18290-629: The prefix " The Honorable " before their names. A member of the House is referred to as a representative , congressman , or congresswoman . Representatives are usually identified in the media and other sources by party and state, and sometimes by congressional district, or a major city or community within their district. For example, Democratic representative Nancy Pelosi , who represents California's 11th congressional district within San Francisco , may be identified as "D–California", "D–California–11" or "D–San Francisco". "Member of congress"

18445-464: The presence of Negroid blood in the Mediterranean peoples during his first meeting with Mussolini in 1934. The definition of Aryan remained in constant flux to such an extent that the Nazis questioned whether European ethnic groups such as Finns or Hungarians were to be classified as Aryans. Hungarians were classified as tribally alien but not necessarily blood alien, in 1934 the Nazis published

18600-510: The reapportionment consequent to the 1960 census . The Constitution does not provide for the representation of the District of Columbia or of territories . The District of Columbia and the territories of Puerto Rico , American Samoa , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , and the U.S. Virgin Islands are each represented by one non-voting delegate . Puerto Rico elects a resident commissioner , but other than having

18755-532: The requisite oath to support the Constitution, but later engages in rebellion or aids the enemies of the United States, is disqualified from becoming a representative. This post–Civil War provision was intended to prevent those who sided with the Confederacy from serving. However, disqualified individuals may serve if they gain the consent of two-thirds of both houses of Congress. Elections for representatives are held in every even-numbered year, on Election Day

18910-431: The seats. Both Democrats and Republicans were in power at various times during the next decade. The Democratic Party maintained control of the House from 1955 until 1995. In the mid-1970s, members passed major reforms that strengthened the power of sub-committees at the expense of committee chairs and allowed party leaders to nominate committee chairs. These actions were taken to undermine the seniority system , and to reduce

19065-664: The south wing of the United States Capitol . The rules of the House generally address a two-party system, with a majority party in government, and a minority party in opposition. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House , who is elected by the members thereof. Other floor leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conference , depending on whichever party has

19220-486: The start of the next Congress. Special elections also occur when a seat is vacated early enough. The House's composition was established by Article One of the United States Constitution . The House is composed of representatives who, pursuant to the Uniform Congressional District Act , sit in single member congressional districts allocated to each state on the basis of population as measured by

19375-794: The strong Nordic heritage amongst Germans. Günther believed Slavic people to be of Eastern race, one that was separate from Germans and Nordics, and warned about mixing German blood with Slavic one. He defined each racial subtype according to general physical appearance and their psychological qualities including their racial soul – referring to their emotional traits and religious beliefs, and provided detailed information on their hair, eye, and skin colours, facial structure. He provided photographs of Germans identified as Nordic in places like Baden , Stuttgart , Salzburg , and Schwaben ; and provided photographs of Germans he identified as Alpine and Mediterranean types, especially in Vorarlberg , Bavaria , and

19530-721: The support of delegates from large states such as Virginia , Massachusetts , and Pennsylvania , as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan , which called for a unicameral Congress with equal representation for the states. Eventually, the Convention reached the Connecticut Compromise or Great Compromise, under which one house of Congress (the House of Representatives) would provide representation proportional to each state's population, whereas

19685-634: The system was, in Gingrich's words, "morally, intellectually and spiritually corrupt". Gingrich followed Wright's successor, Democrat Tom Foley , as speaker after the Republican Revolution of 1994 gave his party control of the House. Gingrich attempted to pass a major legislative program, the Contract with America and made major reforms of the House, notably reducing the tenure of committee chairs to three two-year terms. Many elements of

19840-570: The type held strong psychological manipulation skills that aided them in trade. He claimed that the Near Eastern race had been bred not so much for the conquest and exploitation of nature as it was for the conquest and exploitation of people. Hitler's conception of the Aryan Herrenvolk (master race) explicitly excluded the vast majority of Slavs , regarding the Slavs as having dangerous Jewish and Asiatic influences. Because of this,

19995-410: The vacancy occurs closer to the next general election date than a pre-established deadline. The term of a member chosen in a special election usually begins the next day, or as soon as the results are certified. Historically, many territories have sent non-voting delegates to the House. While their role has fluctuated over the years, today they have many of the same privileges as voting members, have

20150-528: The way the thing droops, that his origin is Mongolian ." The question of whether Italians were Aryan enough was questioned by the Nazi racial theorists. Hitler viewed northern Italians as strongly Aryan, but not southern Italians. The Nazis viewed the downfall of the Roman Empire as being the result of the pollution of blood from racial intermixing, claiming that Italians were a hybrid of races, including black African races. Hitler even mentioned his view of

20305-455: The woman's story is fictitious from A to Z, that in no way diminishes the avalanche of human rights violations." The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sent investigators to Kuwait who went through the hospital and counted the incubators and they found that "except for one or two that may have been misplaced" all of the incubators were still in the hospital. The investigators concluded that there were no deaths resulting from stolen equipment. And

20460-681: The work he felt so passionately about. The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice was founded later that year to carry out that wish. Lantos's daughter, Katrina Lantos Swett , serves as the Foundation's president and CEO. On September 10, 2011, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA officially opened the Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion, located at 1450 Rollins Road in Burlingame, California . The facility

20615-529: The writers took up the traditional Nordicist claim that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was due to the arrival of Semitic immigrants. La Difesa ' s writers were divided on their claims that described how Italians extricated themselves from Semitic influence. The Nordicist direction of Fascist racial policy was challenged in 1938 by a resurgence of the Mediterraneanist faction in

20770-459: Was Jewish, Lantos, then 16, was arrested and sent to a forced labor camp outside of Budapest. He escaped, but was soon caught by the Germans and beaten severely, then returned to the labor camp. He again escaped, this time making his way back to Budapest, 40 miles (64 km) away. There, he hid with an aunt in a safe house set up by Raoul Wallenberg , a Swedish diplomat. Lantos joined Wallenberg's network; his fair hair and blue eyes, which to

20925-734: Was a strong proponent of gun control and adamantly pro-choice . Lantos was an advocate on behalf of the environment , receiving consistently high ratings from the League of Conservation Voters and other environmental organizations for his legislative record. His long-standing efforts to protect open space brought thousands of acres under the protection of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area , including Mori Point , Sweeney Ridge , and Rancho Corral de Tierra , which will keep its watersheds and delicate habitats free from development permanently. While Lantos

21080-565: Was an early supporter of the Iraq War , from 2006 onward, he acknowledged public criticism about the conduct of the war and called for a diplomatic approach toward ceasing hostilities. Lantos served as the chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs . Through its more than 20 years of work, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus —of which Lantos was co-chair with Representative Frank Wolf —covered

21235-526: Was an immediate and consistent critic of the troop surge advocated by President Bush. On the night in January 2007 that Bush announced his plan, Lantos responded, "I oppose the so-called surge that constitutes the centerpiece of the President's plan. Our efforts in Iraq are a mess, and throwing in more troops will not improve it." During a joint House hearing on September 10, 2007, featuring General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker , Lantos said: The Administration's myopic policies in Iraq have created

21390-511: Was based upon the conception of the ancient Aryan race being a superior race , holding the highest position in the racial hierarchy and that the Nordic-type Germanic peoples were the most racially pure existing peoples of Aryan stock. The Nazi conception of the Aryan race arose from earlier proponents of a supremacist conception of the race as described by racial theorist figures such as Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain . Nazi racial theorist Hans F. K. Günther identified

21545-421: Was being ruined by the Democrats' tactics and that the GOP had to destroy the system before it could be saved. Cooperation in governance, says Zelizer, would have to be put aside until they deposed Speaker Wright and regained power. Gingrich brought an ethics complaint which led to Wright's resignation in 1989. Gingrich gained support from the media and good government forces in his crusade to persuade Americans that

21700-422: Was bound by spiritual and cultural foundations, and identified a racial hierarchy based on spiritual and cultural factors. While Italian Fascism based its conception of race on spiritual and cultural factors, Mussolini explicitly rejected notions that biologically pure races existed though biology was still considered a relevant factor in race. Italian Fascism strongly rejected the common Nordicist conception of

21855-404: Was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. A special election was held to fill his seat on April 8, 2008, and was won by former State Senator Jackie Speier , whom Lantos had endorsed. On June 19, 2008, Bush posthumously awarded Lantos the Medal of Freedom. In a ceremony at the White House, Bush stated "We miss his vigorous defense of human rights and his powerful witness for

22010-474: Was commonly done by German Nordicists. Cogni had travelled to Germany where he had become impressed by Nazi racial theory and sought to create his own version of racial theory. On 11 September 1936, Cogni sent Mussolini a copy of his newly published book Il Razzismo (1936). Cogni declared the racial affinity of the Mediterranean and Nordic racial subtypes of the Aryan race and claimed that the intermixing of Nordic Aryans and Mediterranean Aryans in Italy produced

22165-485: Was doing – he felt that like the warrior Arjuna , he was simply doing his duty without attachment to his actions. In a 1921 speech in Bologna , Mussolini stated that fascism was born out of a profound, perennial need of this our Aryan and Mediterranean race . In this speech Mussolini was referring to Italians as being the Mediterranean branch of the Aryan race, Aryan in the meaning of people of an Indo-European language and culture. Italian Fascism emphasized that race

22320-435: Was expelled after his criminal conviction for accepting bribes in 1980, Democrat James Traficant of Ohio was expelled in 2002 following his conviction for corruption, and Republican George Santos was expelled in 2023 after he was implicated in fraud by both a federal indictment and a House Ethics Committee investigation. The House also has the power to formally censure or reprimand its members; censure or reprimand of

22475-588: Was funded with a naming gift in the Lantos's honor by Oracle founder, Larry Ellison , and his wife, Melanie. Budapest named a promenade in the city in honor of Lantos in 2016. Lantos received the Grand Cross , Hungary's highest civilian honor. See also Project Vote Smart provides the following results from congressional scorecards. During a 1996 congressional inquiry into the Filegate scandal , Lantos told witness Craig Livingstone that "with an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours, Admiral Boorda committed suicide when he may have committed

22630-424: Was initiated during World War II under Generalplan Ost : millions of Germans and other Germanic settlers would be moved into conquered territories of Eastern Europe, while the original Slavic inhabitants were to be annihilated, removed, or enslaved. Nazi Germany's ally the Independent State of Croatia rejected the common conception that Croats were primarily a Slavic people and claimed that Croats were primarily

22785-424: Was later fined over the incident for inattentive driving. United States House of Representatives Minority (213) Vacant (2) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress , with the Senate being the upper chamber . Together, they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States . The House

22940-450: Was married to Timber Dick, an independent businessman in Colorado, until his accidental death in 2008. Lantos's younger daughter, Katrina, is married to ambassador and former U.S. Representative from New Hampshire Richard Swett , and was herself a candidate for Congress in New Hampshire. Lantos considered himself a secular Jew . Lantos made his first run for office in 1980, challenging Republican Congressman Bill Royer , who had won

23095-479: Was motivated by fears that courts would impose at-large plurality districts on states that did not redistrict to comply with the new mandates for districts roughly equal in population, and Congress also sought to prevent attempts by southern states to use such voting systems to dilute the vote of racial minorities. Several states have used multi-member districts in the past, although only two states (Hawaii and New Mexico) used multi-member districts in 1967. Louisiana

23250-414: Was much more populous than the South , and therefore dominated the House of Representatives. However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery. One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso , which sought to ban slavery in

23405-443: Was subsequently elected by the House as the first female speaker. The Republicans retook the House in 2011 , with the largest shift of power since the 1930s. However, the Democrats retook the house in 2019 , which became the largest shift of power to the Democrats since the 1970s. In the 2022 elections, Republicans took back control of the House, winning a slim majority. In November 2024, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that

23560-450: Was that they were generally responsible for what is the best in European civilization. Initially Mussolini was not impressed with Cogni's work, however Cogni's ideas entered into the official Fascist racial policy several years later. In 1938 Mussolini was concerned that if Italian Fascism did not recognize Nordic heritage within Italians, that the Mediterranean inferiority complex would return to Italian society. Therefore, in summer 1938,

23715-399: Was the brother of Jolie Gabor , with Jolie's daughters Magda , Zsa Zsa , and Eva Gabor being first cousins to Annette Lantos. Lantos and his wife had two daughters, Annette Marie and Katrina , and 18 grandchildren, including Levi , an author and energy expert; Tomicah, a former Democratic political speechwriter; and Charity , an opera singer and activist. The Lantoses' daughter Annette

23870-556: Was the result of depigmentation from their ancestors of the Mediterranean race. In the early 1930s, with the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany and with dictator Adolf Hitler 's emphasis on a Nordicist conception of the Aryan race, strong tensions arose between the Fascists and the Nazis over racial issues. In 1934, in the aftermath of Austrian Nazis killing Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss , an ally of Italy, Mussolini became enraged and responded by angrily denouncing Nazism. Mussolini rebuked Nazism's Nordicism, claiming that

24025-425: Was unacceptable by the Nazis. However, Achim Gerke revised Gorter's draft of the Civil Service Law classifying Aryans as people tribally related to German blood. The Nuremberg race laws of 1935 classified as racially acceptable people with German or related blood. Hitler often doubted whether Czechs were Aryan or not, he said in his table talk, "It is enough for a Czech to grow a moustache for anyone to see, from

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